We continued north to another volcanic mountain. Mount Rainer National Park is 95% wild and surrounding an active volcano. Kind of like our kids mostly wild and can erupt at any time.
We were lucky to arrive with mostly clear skies. We picked out a campsite at Cougar Rock, which was still running on first come first pick. The very short season here had not started yet so there were no crowds. We drove up to Paradise since the weather was clear. The roads were still closed passes Paradise and there were no hiking trails since everything was still under 11 feet of snow! So much snow for June it felt like February to us.
Unfortunately although online they stated everything was open this actually meant the Ranger station was open, but none of the museums or informational areas. This was pretty disappointing to us as the learning aspect is a huge reason we visit the National Parks. The kids still earned their badges and we were able to do some snow hiking. so it was not a total loss but we wish we would have known so we could have planned differently.
We enjoyed the views and watched as clouds rolled in and covered the mountain. Apparently it is covered 50% of the time and we were lucky to have seen it during our visit. We headed back down toward camp stoping at the Narada Falls and enjoyed the views of the Nisqually River. The Falls required some more snow hiking and the mist off the falls was like a cold shower. It was still a great stop.
We enjoyed a nice evening in camp. Both of our neighbors were from our town, two states away and hundreds of miles. such a small world. It was a beautiful day even if it was a bit chilly.
Our second day was not a nice. It was dark and cold, so much so that we all slept in till 9:30 that never happens in our family. With our late start we quickly ate and headed out hoping to get in some hiking before the rains. We made it 1.5 miles before it started raining. We still had to hike back and we got soaked! It was fun and memorable though totally a hike we won’t forget.
We spent the rest of the day at camp playing games and even watched a Friday night movie. we left early the next morning again hoping for drier skies at our next stop. Although we are loving the visit, we are thinking the north west is not on our list of future places we want to live.
Our 6S Full Life 